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Obama on Attacking Keating Attacks on McCain: ‘We Don't Throw the First Punch, But We'll Throw the Last’
October 06, 2008 2:10 PM
In Asheville, NC, this afternoon, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., made a statement about today's bleak economic news, hammered Sen. John McCain's campaign tactics, and refused to answer questions about McCain's role in the Keating 5 scandal -- which his campaign is discussing quite a bit -- before getting into his car and speeding off to get some barbecue at 12 Bones Smokehouse.
"Before we go get some barbecue I want to make a statement on the economy,” Obama said.
"Obviously, we woke up this morning and saw that the markets are still in turmoil. Not only are we seeing the stock market go down, but there is still great danger of the credit markets locking up and we have seen the contagion is spreading to all parts of the globe. Europe is having some of the problems that we are having here in the states. Asia is being affected
"It is a reminder that the rescue package that was passed last week is not the end of our efforts to deal with the economy. It is just the beginning.
"I think it is very important for Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Bernanke to move swiftly and try to restore confidence as quickly as possible to effectuate the plans, based on the authority given to them by Congress. I think it is still critical for us to move forward on an economic stimulus package that can provide people some relief from high gas prices. Food prices. Help states and local governments maintain their payrolls. I think we have to extend unemployment insurance after the statistics showing that 159,000 additional jobs were lost just last month.
"And we are going to have to then move on an aggressive plan to deal with some of the underlying structural problems in the economy, including the continuing decline in the housing market.
"Now, Sen. McCain and I have a debate tomorrow. And obviously, the American people are going to be anxious to hear from one of the two people who is going to be the next president and responsible for dealing with this economic mess and what their plans are. I was a little surprised over the last couple of days to hear Sen. McCain say -- or Sen. McCain's campaign say -- that we want to turn the page on discussions about the economy and campaign, a member of Sen. McCain's campaign saying today that if we talk about the economic crisis, we lose.
"I have got news for the McCain campaign: the American people are losing right now. They are losing their jobs. They are losing their health care. They are losing their homes and their savings. I cannot imagine anything more important to talk about than the economic crisis, and the notion that we would want to brush that aside and engage in the usual political shenanigans and smear tactics that have come to characterize too many campaigns, I think, is not what the American people are looking for. So, I am going to keep on talking about the economy. I am going to keep on talking about what we need to do to strengthen the middle class and get our credit markets settled down. I have confidence we are going to solve this problem, but we are not going to solve it with business as usual. And we need fundamental change, and that is why I am running as president. Alright. "
Obama was twice asked by the press pool, “Why did you bring up the Keating Five?” but Obama ignored the questions and got in his car.
**
He wasn't so reticent on the "Tom Joyner Morning Show," when the host asked about the McCain-Palin campaign's attack on him for "palling around with terrorists," namely former Weather Underground member William Ayers, currently an education professor in Chicago.
"First of all, just the facts," Obama told Joyner. "Mr. Ayers is somebody who lives in Chicago, he is a professor at the University of Chicago — University of Illinois, teaches education, and he engaged in these despicable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old. I served on a board with him, and so now, they are trying to use this as guilt by association. And as you've said, they explicitly stated what they want to do is to change the topic, because they don't want to talk about the economy and the failed policies of the last eight years. So, I think the American people deserve better. I think they deserve a last four weeks that talks about the economic crisis, about the 159 jobs that were lost –- 159,000 jobs that were lost just last week — last month.
"But if John McCain wants to have a character debate, then I am happy to have that debate, because Mr. McCain's record, despite him calling himself a maverick, actually shows that he is continually somebody who relies on lobbyists for big oil, big corporations, and that he makes decisions oftentimes based on what these lobbyists tell him to do. And that, I think, is going to be a lot more relevant to the American people than what somebody -- who is tangentially related to me -- did when I was 8 years old."
Joyner noted that the Obama campaign launched a Web site, keatingeconomics.com, going after McCain for his role in the S&L crisis of the late 1980s/early 1990s, and his role in the Keating Five scandal. "Of course, Charles Keating was a savings and loan guy out of Arizona," Joyner said. "Doesn't this put you in the position of going negative, taking away your message of running a different kind of campaign?"
Said Obama: "One of the things we’ve done during this campaign: we don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last. Because if the American people don't get the information that is relevant about these candidates and, instead, in the last four weeks, all they are hearing about are smears and Swift Boat tactics, that can have an impact on the election. We have seen it before, and this election is too important to be sitting on the sidelines. If Sen. McCain wants to focus on the issues, then that is what we focus on. But if Sen. McCain wants to have a character debate, that is one that we're willing to have."
**
At 12 Bones Smokehouse, he ordered takeout for his campaign staff: Brisket, 2 racks of ribs, pulled pork, a barbecue platter, a veggie platter, six sweet teas, corn pudding, macaroni and cheese, and a double order of collards.
- jpt
October 6, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (377)
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"If we are unhappy with our country, we will simply leave and contribute to the success of another country instead. I am a member of what I think will come to be known as the global generation."
Good luck trying to emigrate. You'd better start working on your Master's degree.
Posted by: Mack | Oct 6, 2008 6:19:52 PM
If McCain gets elected, I am going to do everything within my power to move out of the country. Then I will simply sit back and watch America tear itself apart... and I'll actually smile. You older generations have no idea what kind of a younger generation is developing at this time. If we are unhappy with our country, we will simply leave and contribute to the success of another country instead. I am a member of what I think will come to be known as the global generation. We are not merely citizens of America, but citizens of this world. You can all go down with the ship. I'm simply going to go and help build a bigger, better one.
Posted by: Niko | Oct 6, 2008 6:13:25 PM
Mack
"And which state are you the Governor of? Don't tell me, you're a rocket scientist?"
Well Mack, if being elected means being intelligent the world would be a much saver place.
Look at these geniuses the people has elected.
- Jesse Ventura
- George W. Bush
- Dan Quale
- Berlusconi
But I really don't hate her, I think she is smart in charming people, but not the VP material I think is needed.
Not that I'm suited as VP, but at least I know how to pronounce the word nuclear.
Posted by: CLabs | Oct 6, 2008 6:10:26 PM
Distraction, Hate and Fear. It's all Republicans have. No ideas, failed policies, failed ideology. Same old smear tactics that gave us Bush instead of Gore, that gave us Bush instead of Kerry. Proof's in the pudding. How does Bush taste now?
Posted by: thebob.bob | Oct 6, 2008 5:59:04 PM
If the republicans could get the media to give their candidate the respect that they are giving this ******* we would give you McCain and not Obama.
Kerry was on tape saying the things that caused his demise. Bush had been a great governor, and he has messed up some things as President, uh, then there was Clinton, you have to be really bad to do what he did in "our house".
Posted by: Surfside | Oct 6, 2008 6:09:24 PM
"Obama is an exceptional person. He has risen to the top in everything he has done."
Yes, he has done well for HIMSELF. It is all about him. His relationships with Ayers and Wright have been strictly for political gain. Politically calculated moves to get him to the next level. He's moved from position to position, without ever really accomplishing anything meaningful or lasting. Who really knows what his motives are?
Posted by: Mack | Oct 6, 2008 6:01:59 PM
Posted by: laura d | Oct 6, 2008 5:57:07 PM
Just what I thought. You can't come up with one thing Sarah has said that she wasn't parroting.
Posted by: J | Oct 6, 2008 6:01:02 PM
Posted by: Thomas | Oct 6, 2008 5:55:55 PM
Now don't pick on Sarah, laura d says that is disrespectful...lol
Posted by: J | Oct 6, 2008 5:59:16 PM
Distraction, Hate and Fear. It's all Republicans have. No ideas, failed policies, failed ideology. Same old smear tactics that gave us Bush instead of Gore, that gave us Bush instead of Kerry. Proof's in the pudding. How does Bush taste now?
Posted by: thebob.bob | Oct 6, 2008 5:59:04 PM
Blip, I'm an independent voter. I agree with you on the importance of other matters. But here's the thing. It's a matter of character.
We have to be for justice. And we have to be for justice for those who cannot speak for themselves. We have to be for babies and for justice for them first.
Now, if a person does not care for the justice of a little baby living - then their character really isn't for justice for people out of love for people, the way I see it.
Obama voted 3 times in the Illinois legislature to cause babies that were born alive to die - with no medical care, no love, no comfort.
That's not justice. That's not love. That's not the America I believe in.
I can't believe in anything Obama says - because he doesn't love the least and he doesn't care for justice for the least. Then there's something else in his character that is why he's doing what he's doing. No Senator in the US voted against caring for babies born alive. Only Obama practised infanticide.
That's cold. That's really cold.
What more is he capable of?? What else is in his heart?? How could his conscience allow that vote when all US Senators voted unanimously to protect babies who were born alive??
Who is this man, really?? We see a good speaker... but who is he really??
Posted by: laura d | Oct 6, 2008 5:57:07 PM
Ok it's time to fight fire with fire. Obama you have to take the gloves off and get down and dirty like Palin and McCain. Playing the good guy will not work. Let's start with McCain and the Keating five followed by his affinity for gambling, Lets add Palin and her witchdoctor pastor in Alaska followed by her association with her husband's wish to have Alaska cede from the USA. As they say in my hometown of Chicago "Politics ain't bean bag". Its on!!!!!!
Posted by: Thomas | Oct 6, 2008 5:55:55 PM
You don't have to be smart to get elected...
Look at our current president.
Posted by: Blip | Oct 6, 2008 5:55:02 PM
"Did you know, Mack, that Obama had supporters of his jam the lines at WGN where Milt Rosenberg was going to interview Stanley Kurtz?? See, Obama told his people that Stanley Kurtz was lying and so to SILENCE Stanley Kurtz.'
They do what they're told, like dogs. They do their master's bidding, and need to be told what to think and what to say.
Posted by: Mack | Oct 6, 2008 5:54:33 PM
Which begs the question, who cares about abortion when were electing a president? Or are you just being wedge-issued into voting for an irrelevant VP based on an irrelevant stance on an irrelevant issue? She is not a barbie doll . She is me and you. Do you want me or you running the country, and the economy of the world?
Posted by: Dakotah | Oct 6, 2008 5:53:44 PM
It is amazing that the republicans want to stoop so low as to try and tie Senator Obama to Ayers a former member of the Weather Underground and now a college professor and activist in Chicago and yet refuse to realize that Palin is MARRIED to a man who is a card-carrying member of the AIP for many years and who neither Palin nor Todd has distanced themselves from. Palin even went so far as to videotape welcoming comments to their annual convention as a sitting Governor.
Posted by: FACINGREALITY | Oct 6, 2008 5:53:37 PM
Oh... no... Aiken would not be a good President. He'd just be better than Palin. And, I think if McCain picked him....
You'd be gushing with praise for him, too.
McCain picked a poor candidate. She seems like a decent, though flawed, person... like anybody else. But exceptional challenges call for exceptional people. Obama is an exceptional person. He has risen to the top in everything he has done. He is pragmatic and driven. And as the first black man elected, he will have the weight of history on his shoulders.
He has no choice but to govern well and to govern fairly.
Posted by: Blip | Oct 6, 2008 5:53:35 PM
"We just don't agree with her and think she just doesn't have enough intellect for the job as VP (okay, she is dumb)."
And which state are you the Governor of? Don't tell me, you're a rocket scientist?
Posted by: Mack | Oct 6, 2008 5:51:37 PM
laura d,
You still haven't answered my question about Sarah Palin answering something that wasn't being a parrot for the GOP. I am still waiting. I just asked you to name one thing.
Posted by: J | Oct 6, 2008 5:51:34 PM
Did you know, Mack, that Obama had supporters of his jam the lines at WGN where Milt Rosenberg was going to interview Stanley Kurtz?? See, Obama told his people that Stanley Kurtz was lying and so to SILENCE Stanley Kurtz.
Truth is, Stanley Kurtz researched all about Obama and was giving facts and the truth about Obama.
And Obama didn't want the truth to come out.
But Obama's supporters deserve to know the truth about Obama just like the rest of the American people. Truly open-minded people would read all Stanley Kurtz has to say - cuz he can prove what he's saying about Obama that Obama wanted Kurtz to be intimidated from saying.
Guess Obama has plenty to hide - even from his own supporters. I think people ought to read what Stanley Kurtz has to say and learn more about Obama.... cuz he's a tricky one that man is. He likes to stop people from speaking out... and that's not what America believes in. Obama tries to stop free speech. That's not American and that's against our civil rights.
Posted by: laura d | Oct 6, 2008 5:51:16 PM
Blip, still believe he is a Muslim, and just what do you call Rev Wright? Maybe he is Muslim also. If Obama is a Christian, why does he judge? "Judge not least you be judged">
Posted by: Surfside | Oct 6, 2008 5:50:55 PM
"
Mack
"How these people have treated Governor Palin is even worse. It's scandalous and despicable."
I agree. Out of the millions of people in this country, she is one of 50 state governors, yet they feel that it is ok to disrespect her accomplishments. It's rabid hate.
"
No, I don't hate her. It's all projection from you, the McCain supporters. You hate Obama and think therefore others hate Palin.
We just don't agree with her and think she just doesn't have enough intellect for the job as VP (okay, she is dumb).
Posted by: CLabs | Oct 6, 2008 5:49:47 PM
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